


Iron Man?

by roseirondoctor



Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-09
Updated: 2013-06-08
Packaged: 2017-12-14 09:34:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/835424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseirondoctor/pseuds/roseirondoctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a story that starts out canon, but goes to question what would happen in Tony was too terrified to become Iron Man and Pepper took his place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Iron Man?

**Author's Note:**

> The beginning sticks with the canon of the movie and may not be too different. I just thought it would be important to start it out close to the movie and stick to the main points and just change things up as I go along.

**Chapter 1**

**_A press Conferece?_ **

                The moment Pepper saw Tony it was all she could do to hold it together. Then he was back to being Tony Stark.

 

                “Your eyes are red. A few tears for your long-lost boss?” Tony called out to her as he came closer to her. He hadn’t seemed to change a bit.

 

                “Tears of joy, I hate job hunting.” She laughed between her few tears that seemed to slip through her façade.

 

                Then Tony seemed to become slightly more serious. It was nothing that anyone who hadn’t known him for years would notice, but the look in his eyes was a little harsher.

 

                “Yeah, vacation's over.”

 

                They walked to the car together and said nothing. There wasn’t really any of his usual banter she was used to hearing. They met Happy before they got in the car and he seemed finally happy now that Tony was back. She exchanged a small smile with Happy and then when they got in the car they were both back in business mode handling Tony.

 

                "Where to, sir?" Happy asked Tony.

 

                “Take us to the hospital, please, Happy.” Pepper told Happy.

 

                Tony had different ideas. “No.”

 

                “No? Tony, you have to go to the hospital.”

 

                Was Tony crazy? She knew he didn’t like hospitals, but he had to know that he would need checked over. He was captive for three months and Pepper wasn’t an idiot. She knew that Tony had been tortured. He obviously received some kind of medical treatment otherwise he wouldn’t be sitting next to her. She also knew that his treatment had to have been crudely done. He needed proper medical care so he would stand to terrorize the public for many more years.

 

                “No is a complete answer.” Tony just said.

 

                Pepper tried to make him see reason.  “The doctor has to look at you.”

 

                “I don't have to do anything. I've been in captivity for three months. There are two things I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger and the other...”

 

                Pepper knew where this was going. She had worked with Tony for years. “That's enough of that.”

 

                “...is not what you think. I want you to call for a press conference now.”

             

               Pepper was shocked. “Call for a press conference?” She asked feeling very confused. That was something Pepper usually had to arrange to clear up something to make Tony’s public image look better. She had planned on having a press conference in a few days or until medical cleared Tony. Pepper wasn’t quite sure why Tony wanted a press conference now.

 

                “Yeah.” Tony said with total nonchalance.

 

                “What on earth for?”

 

                “Hogan, drive. Cheeseburger first.” Tony order Happy, completely evading Pepper’s question.

 

                Pepper tried a few more times to question Tony on his reasoning for this craziness. Tony finally just snapped at her. He apologized quickly, but it was effective enough to get Pepper to finally call for his stupid press conference. They arrived for the press conference thirty minutes later. Pepper followed Tony out the car to meet with Stane.

 

                “Look at this! Tony. We were going to meet at the hospital.” Obadiah called out Tony admonishing him for his behavior, but also just acting like it was all okay.

 

                “No, I'm fine.” Tony just smiled and kept walking toward the building.

 

                Pepper was even more upset at this point. She knew he wouldn’t listen, but she couldn’t help throwing one last comment in. “Look at you!”

 

                Tony ignored Pepper as he continued to walk with Obadiah. Pepper followed them until they walked into the building. Then she walked to the back of the crowd instead of onto the stage with Tony. Pepper knew that Rhodey would be coming soon and she had a feeling she might need him to clean up a mess that Tony would leave. Pepper’s thoughts were interrupted by a man that seemed average and looked to be in his late 30’s.

 

                “Miss Potts?” The man asked her.

 

                Pepper looked at the man and decided that he was just another reporter trying to get her to give them a big piece all about Tony’s dramatic return. She was sure that he wouldn’t be the only one.

 

                “Yes.” Pepper replied.

 

                “Can I speak to you for a moment?”

 

                “I'm not part of the press conference, but it's about to begin right now.”

 

                “I'm not a reporter.”

 

                Pepper was slightly shocked, but she shook it off and tried to figure out who he was.

 

                “I'm agent Phil Coulson, with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.”

 

                Pepper was even more irritated now. Her day seemed to becoming more difficult to deal with by the minute. This wasn’t some stupid reporter she could brush off. It was some sort of federal agent trying to cover up anything Tony did to escape.

 

                “That's quite a mouthful.” She quipped.

 

                “I know. We're working on it.” Agent Coulson tried to smile at her and charm her into talking to him, but Pepper worked for Tony Stark. She was immune to charming smiles from guys in suits.

 

                “You know, we've been approached already by the DOD, the FBI, the CIA...” Pepper tried this one last ditch effort to get him to leave Tony alone.

 

                “We're a separate division with a more specific focus. We need to debrief Mr. Stark about the circumstances of his escape.” Agent Coulson was used to being brushed off. He knew the Pepper, being Tony’s personal assistant, would have to at the least schedule an appointment for Tony.

 

                Pepper was beat and she knew it. She couldn’t blow off a government agency, especially one she had never heard of. For all Pepper knew, the agency could just make her disappear.

 

                “I’ll put something in the book, shall I?”

 

                “Thank you.”

 

                Pepper turned to watch the press conference and when she turned to get a closer look at this Agent Coulson while he wasn’t looking, he wasn’t there. Coulson had just disappeared. This left a cold shiver on the back of Pepper’s neck so she went over to Rhodey just as he walked in.

 

                Pepper turned to talk to Rhodey to see if any sort of medical professional had checked out Tony at the base. She knew that the important parts of the press conference wouldn’t start until at least five minutes in. She didn’t hear Tony ask everyone to sit down until Rhodey commented on it.

 

                “What's up with the love-in?” He questioned Pepper.

 

                “Don't look at me. I don't know what he's up to.” Pepper knew she really had to pay attention to this press conference. It wasn’t just one to get the press of Tony’s back for a while. This was something different. Pepper just didn’t know what kind of different yet.

 

                Pepper could faintly hear Tony say something to Obadiah and then he raised his voice to the crowd.

 

                Tony talked to the crowd like he was talking to an old friend, one of his many talents. “I never got to say goodbye to my father. There's questions that I would have asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did, if he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability.”

 

                A news reporter took Tony’s pause as an opportunity to speak up. “Mr. Stark!”

 

                “Hey Ben.” Tony replied to him with a sense of familiarity.

 

                “What happened over there?” Ben asked as cautiously as a news reporter ever will.

 

                I waited for Tony to answer with bated breath. I wasn’t sure how this would turn out.

 

                “I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately; I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International,”

 

                Pepper let out a small gasp along with the rest of the crowd. Many scenarios had gone through her head, but she never would have imagined this. This was Tony’s whole entire business. His company’s stock would go down. No! Tony might start having to fire people. Pepper loved her job. She may kid about how bad a boss Tony was, but she wouldn’t rather work for anyone else. Sure he was a pain, but he was a pain she could deal with! Pepper realized she was freaking out too soon and her mind was running a mile a minute. She had to wait to hear his whole plan.

 

                “Until such a time as I can decide what the future of the company will be. What direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country, as well.”

 

                Tony had no plan set out? He was jumping into this and letting Obadiah clean up after him? Tony had always been a slight optimist, but his time away must have really changed him. No. Pepper couldn’t think about that. Pepper couldn’t bear to think of him in pain. Maybe later when no one was around she could cry for him, but he needed her strong. Tony needed someone on his side even though she couldn’t really voice her support.

 

                Pepper followed Tony out to the car and ignored Obadiah’s attempts to subdue the press. She wanted to finally get Tony down to the hospital.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading this! I apologize that this is so close to canon, but I want to gradually take it away from there so it doesn't seem so odd.


End file.
